We’re only in September and we’re at it again – talking about pre-orders ahead of Christmas! That’s because, when it comes to hospitality, if there’s one thing you can rely on, it’s the fact that nothing ever goes exactly to plan. You can prep for weeks, polish the cutlery until it shines, and line up your pre-orders like ducks in a row, but the big day always has a way of throwing in a surprise or two.

Sometimes it’s small (like three people swapping their mains at the table and pretending they definitely ordered it that way), and sometimes it’s big (like, say, an uninvited fire alarm deciding to go off during the event).

The truth is, in hospitality, the unexpected is inevitable. But that doesn’t mean you can’t be prepared. Pre-ordering should be the stress-busting superhero of busy service, but when it goes wrong, it can quickly turn into the villain of the piece.

That’s why we’re here. Zonal’s Customer Success team have shared the top 5 things that can (and often do) go wrong with pre-orders on the big day, and how we can help you sidestep the chaos. Because while we can’t stop the universe from throwing curveballs, we can make sure pre-order isn’t one of them.

1. The Night Before Panic

It’s the day before the Christmas parties start arriving, you’ve been chasing the party for their final pre-orders and they’ve not picked up your calls. Then the night before, they open their emails and realise they have missed their pre-order cut-off.

Our fix: Use your Host access to do it!

Pre-Order allows you to set a cut-off. This is a timeframe that you display to your guests when booking as to how long they have to make their mind up of what they will eat on the day. But we know it doesn’t always work out like that and people miss a deadline – so as a Host, we allow you to make pre-order changes within the Guest portal up until the early hours of their arrival.

Once the Guest Pre-Order cut-off has been reached, the guest will not be able to make an order. A message will show stating “Attendees cannot be added after the pre-order cut-off”. If selecting to edit an attendee choice, a red message will display showing “Pre-Ordering is now closed. Please contact the restaurant if you have not submitted your choices or if you need to discuss this further”.

The Host, however, will have the ability to add any additional attendee names to the booking, as well as make amendments to the pre-order selections. The Host cut-off will be defined in the booking summary under pre-order – for the majority, it’s configured to be around 04:00 on the day of the booking – after this point, you’ll need to make changes on the POS.

2. Arriving and changing the order

You had a neat list of who ordered what. Then once everyone has arrived, someone decides they don’t actually eat chicken, they’ve gone vegan “since Tuesday,” and suddenly the table’s a game of musical chairs with mains. Having pre-orders delayed in sending to the kitchen lets you make last-minute swaps quickly, so you’re not left with a lonely chicken dish.

Our fix: Update it on the POS.

Once a pre-order reaches the POS, they are stored on the till as delayed orders.

To view the orders, navigate to “Pick up Account” on the till (often found in Options).  This will display all open accounts within the sales area.

You’ll be looking for “Delayed Orders”.

You want to select the name of the booking. when selected, it’ll present a message that “The order preparation has not been started. Request this now?” – you’ll need to select “No” here.

If you select Yes, you’ll need to quickly tell your team to stop prepping as this will send the order through to the kitchen, but it won’t have a table number.

After selecting “No”, the ticket will show. You’ll then need to select “Tables” and click the table number, for which you’ll be asked “Are you sure you want to move Account Number X to Tables XX” – to which you’ll select “All Items”.

You will now have the opportunity to pick up the account and further modify it.

If the order (as shown below) is in an orange state, it’s because the order is in a Hold state. This will prevent the order sending to the printer. You will need to select the “Hold Delayed Order” button to then release the order (it’ll revert to white text) and this, once saved, will send to the relevant printers.

Doing this means that you have the opportunity to set the table number, and make the pre-order changes at 11:30am when the event is at 12:00pm

3. The “I Definitely Didn’t Order That” Moment

A guest swears they ordered the steak. Your pre-order sheet says fish. Now you’re stuck playing referee in a battle of wills.

Our fix: Place cards, chef reports, run sheets and portals. We’ve produced many routes to viewing pre-orders on the day or in the run up.

Place Cards:

You can have these on the table for the guests arrival. Having the guests name on one side and their pre-order on the other, whether they’ve have had a tipple or their attention is not on you when handing out the food, a place card can help with that.

Chef Report:

The Chef Report can be extracted for future dates, as well as the current day. Viewing either by:

Products – for quantities of products/items,

Date – useful when selecting a date range.

Time – perfect for seeing requirements throughout the day.

Event – a break down by party.

Guest – showing a breakdown of each guest attending and their specific items ordered.

Run Sheets:

If you have our Central Reservations feature enabled, you will have Run Sheets.

A Run Sheet will offer everything you need for a booking, From booking details, to pre-orders, booking requests and even dietary requirements. A run sheet is perfect for those larger parties.

All of these are digital receipts and confirmations. Both you and the guests can see exactly what they ordered ensuring there’s no awkward debates mid-service of who ordered what, or whether they chose custard or ice cream with that Christmas Pudding!

4. The Dreaded 86’d Item

Everything’s running smoothly… until the kitchen runs out of an item on the Thursday night. Cue Friday morning, pre-orders are failing to send to the POS.

Our fix: With live menu management, sold-out dishes are instantly updated in the pre-order system. At the sender window time (for the majority it’s defined at 04:00), pre-order will fail to send to the POS as it awaits your action. It’s the system’s way of flagging that you need to act.

The Chef Report helps you manage this. Here’s some simple steps on how you can resolve an out of stock issue:

1. Navigate to the Reports Tab.
2. From the Report Categories, select Pre-Order.
3. Using the date range selector, amend the start and end date to the current day.
   All pre-orders will display. Using the Event view of the report, users are presented clearly with the reason for a pre-order not sending. Should the reason for “Product Out of Stock”. If this error shows, you will need to go to the POS and put the item back in stock.
4. Choose the option beside the booking to Resend Pre-Order.
   There is only 1 retry attempt possible, should there still be an issue and the items fails to send you have to manually add it to the pre-order.

5. The Curveball You Can’t Predict

Gas leak. Fire alarm. A delivery that never arrives. Hospitality is full of chaos you can’t control. But when pre-orders run smoothly, at least it’s one less fire (sometimes literally) to put out.

Our fix: Test before the day. We can’t recommend enough that you test with your team. Maybe role play, maybe ask your Account Manager for support with one of the Customer Success team. We are here to help take the pre-order stress off your plate, so you’ve got the headspace to deal with whatever else the day throws at you.

At the end of the day, hospitality will always keep you on your toes, because if it’s not a guest changing their mind, it’s the fire alarm going off right as mains are about to go out (and yes, that happened to me with 250 covers waiting for Christmas meals on black Friday!).

While we can’t stop the unexpected, we can make sure pre-orders don’t add to the chaos. With the right system in place, you’ll save time, reduce stress, and keep your focus where it matters most: delivering a brilliant experience for your guests.

Because let’s face it – unexplained fire alarms happen. Pre-order disasters don’t have to!

The sun is still shining, and for many, summer holidays are still here. We’re not wishing that away, but as operators, it’s important to start looking ahead. The festive season is just around the corner, and for most venues, it’s the busiest time of the year. Preparing now means you’ll be ready to hit the ground running when demand peaks.

Zonal’s Customer Success team are already feeling the festive spirit. We’ve been talking Christmas since June, helping get businesses up to speed with some of the newer features and functions within our Events platform – especially pre-order!

Zonal partner, 125 Data & Insights, is a customer experience dashboard that gathers consumer data and shows operators exactly what their customers love and where they think things can improve, so that they become, and remain, loyal customers and advocates of the business.

Here we chat with Managing Director at 125 Data & Insights, Olivia FitzGerald, about all things loyalty – and how to make a ‘superfan’.

What channels do you think are most effective for engaging customers in today’s market, and why?

There’s no one size fits all solution when it comes to ways of communicating in today’s market. Our data shows that Google is universally important across different demographics, with businesses needing to prioritise their reputation there. In fact, 69% of customers reported checking Google before planning a visit, and 90% of them considered the information found on Google as crucial. This highlights how businesses cannot afford to ignore Google.

Social media channels are also very important, with younger generations more engaged with Instagram and TikTok due to their visual nature. Older generations tend to use review websites such as TripAdvisor instead and, while it may seem outdated, email is still one of the most cost-effective and easy-to-use channels.

How can businesses leverage data to personalise customer interactions and improve engagement across different channels?

The first step to personalisation is understanding your customer demographics. By using certain tools, businesses can segment their database based on customer preferences and behaviour. For example, older demographics tend to have higher brand loyalty, while younger generations may frequent a wider range of brands and are more easily swayed.

This demographic insight allows businesses to tailor their communication and engagement strategies accordingly. For example, Bill’s restaurants promote their bottomless pancake offering mainly through Instagram, as it appeals to their younger, student-heavy audience who prefer visual content. Using data to segment your audience and then choosing the most appropriate channels based on that segmentation leads to more effective customer engagement.

How can data-driven insights help identify potential loyal customers early in their journey and tailor strategies to enhance their experience?

We’ve been working on identifying what makes someone a ‘superfan’— those who advocate for a brand. Key indicators include using emotional language in feedback, such as ‘love’ and using multiple exclamation marks. We’ve found that people who score highly on Net Promoter Score (NPS) tend to leave more emotive, personalised comments, while lower scores are more functional and less personal.

By tagging these superfans in your database, businesses can start personalising their engagement early. Even without a formal loyalty programme, businesses can offer special deals or incentives to these superfans. Combining customer feedback with CRM data offers actionable insights for improving engagement and loyalty.

What are some of the challenges companies face when using data to manage loyalty programmes, and how can they overcome these obstacles?

Companies often overcomplicate their loyalty programmes, to the point that they become too complex for both customers and staff to understand. Taking it back to basics is key, ensuring that the programme is simple, aligned with their objectives, and based on actual visit frequency. For instance, a points system relying on frequent visits won’t work for businesses with low visit frequency.

Additionally, businesses often fail to define clear objectives for their loyalty programmes, which makes it hard to measure success. Overcoming this requires businesses to leverage their data to understand what they are trying to achieve and how they will measure success. It’s also important to recognise that loyalty isn’t always about structured programmes – it can be based on human connections, such as staff discretion or special incentives, which may resonate more with customers.

We’ve all been there; prepped for a busy Friday night, stoves firing, servers on the floor and yet, something is missing. The table of 8?  No shows is one of the biggest impactors of success in hospitality.

Last year £17.6 Billion pounds was lost across the hospitality sector directly linked to no shows and that is just taking account of lost covers. The picture is even worse when accounting for the loss of other customers, who have been turned away by a venue in the mistaken belief that bookings are full, leading to wasted food and unnecessary staffing costs.

In a recent piece of research, a survey of over 5,000 UK pub, bar and restaurant-goers, we found that whilst more than two thirds (68%) of consumers who make bookings say they turn up for all of them, 18% cancel in advance and one in seven (14%) admit to failing to turn up without even telling their venue.

This comes at a huge cost to the industry. In partnership with CGA by NiQ, we have been measuring the number of customers who make a booking and then simply don’t turn up (aka No Shows) since 2021.

It is a huge issue for the industry and underlines again, why building a loyal customer-base is crucial for pubs, bars and restaurants.

[Pull stats] Why do People No Show?18

29% said it was because they decided it would be too expensive to go out
27% said it was because they changed their plans
21% said it was because someone in the group fell ill
17% said it was because they forgot
14% said it was because someone else in the group cancelled
10% said it was because they had booked several venues

Despite these frustrating figures, hospitality does at least compare favourably to other sectors.

While 14% of customers fail to show up for hospitality, you have to feel for the gym sector, where 35% of people admit to having booked and no showed to a class in the last year, as well as hairdressers, driving instructors, and taxi drivers, for whom a quarter of people admit to not attending a booking they have made without cancelling in the last 12-months.

No shows are more than missed bookings. They disrupt operations, drain resources and impact the bottom line. There is a way forward by investing in loyalty strategies that build trust and consistency, operators can reduce no shows and strengthen guest relationships. Now is the time to act. Review your booking journey, reward repeat visits and give customers a reason to commit. Because in hospitality, loyalty is not just valuable – it is vital.

Persuading customers to show up

With £17.6bn on the table, the sector needs to find ways to mitigate the issue and encourage consumers to at least let venues know if they no longer intend to turn up.

Interestingly, loyalty was one of the top five reasons consumers said they’d be more likely to honour a booking, with 17% saying they are less likely to no show if they felt loyal to the venue or brand. The same proportion said they would do so if they knew about the impact of lost bookings on businesses and this underlines the need for the industry to join forces and clearly communicate the damage the practice causes.

Other reasons guests gave when asked what would make them less likely to miss a booking were: a simple cancellation process, rewards and incentives to show up, reservation reminders, and (controversially within the trade at least) paying a deposit.

Operators should therefore be looking at implementing some, or all of these, in order to mitigate any losses.

According to Zonal’s latest research , 6:12pm is now the new average time guests prefer to dine out, with almost half (48%) of bookings in Q1 2025 taking place between 12pm and 6pm.

This shift highlights a growing trend: customers are choosing to go out earlier than ever before.

To help you keep up with these changes, and get the most out of your current setup, we’re here to support you. Whether it’s ensuring your systems are optimised or helping you identify if these trends are affecting your business.

We’ve highlighted key areas to help you adapt to the evolving market, particularly those that influence the guest experience before they even arrive:

Rethink Your Offers
Traditional early bird specials from 5–7pm may no longer be as relevant if guests are dining earlier anyway. Consider tailoring offers to off-peak times earlier or maybe later in the day.

Review Your Capacity Settings
Ensure you’re maintaining your capacity models. Zonal can even run a free health-check for customers to ensure you are optimising your bookings.

Make the Most of Your Data
Dive into your reports and trend data and use the insights to guide your decisions.

1. Rethink Your Offers

Loyalty programmes can significantly boost customer engagement and sales, but only when the rewards are timely, targeted, and aligned with customer behaviour.

The top Loyalty programmes we see working for operators include registration rewards (such as a £5 credit applied the day after sign-up to encourage a return visit), to discounts on quieter days (like 25% off food on Mondays).

Our latest research, highlights a major shift in consumer dining habits. As more guests choose to dine earlier, traditional peak hours are changing. This shift presents an opportunity for operators to rethink how they manage evening flow and optimise revenue. To encourage visits beyond the new, earlier peak, time-sensitive offers can be a powerful tool. For example: Bring a Friend: Buy one main and get 50% off the second, available from 8 PM to 10 PM or The Late Night Special: Receive a complimentary glass of bubbly with every main after 8 PM until close. Operators who adapt to these changing patterns will be better positioned to meet guest expectations and stay ahead in a competitive market.

Tip: Connect your Loyalty offering to Bookings:

If you have Table Management enabled within Bookings, integrating your loyalty programme with Bookings system can be a real game-changer. It means a guest’s loyalty account is automatically linked to their reservation the moment they book – no need for scanning cards, digging through emails, or manually adding details at the till.

A loyalty icon will appear next to their booking in Tables Host, so your team can instantly recognise and engage with loyal guests. Their loyalty details will also feed directly into the POS, allowing any eligible discounts or rewards to be applied seamlessly at checkout.

Plus, you can reward guests simply for booking and showing up, whether that’s points toward their next visit or a perk after a certain number of visits.

Loyalty icon  

Tables Host

2. Review Your Capacity Settings

Guest demand shifts throughout the week, and these fluctuations can significantly impact your service. By analysing your bookings data, you can begin to identify patterns and make smarter operational decisions.

For instance, your data may show that Monday to Wednesday are typically quieter, while Thursdays and Fridays see a noticeable increase in activity. Saturdays may be your peak for dinner service, and Sundays for lunch. Recognising these trends allows you to tailor your operations accordingly.

By digging deeper, you can uncover more specific insights, such as the average time guests spend at the table. For example, you might find that on Friday evenings, tables of two tend to turn over 30 minutes faster than on other days. Adjusting your configuration to reflect these habits can help increase yield without compromising guest experience. We recommend you change your configuration in order to suit this with an aim to increase your yield. Not only can this be done for standard days as mentioned above, but also key dates and events.

Capacity management is no longer just about setting the number of covers per timeslot; it now involves considering external factors and adapting proactively.

Zonal can support hospitality businesses in setting up dynamic configurations using features like Plans within our Booking solution. A Plan combines your table layout (e.g., table numbers and seating capacity) with defined turn times by party size. These Plans can be applied flexibly – per day, per session (e.g., breakfast, lunch, dinner), or even for specific scenarios like Bank holidays or special events.

For example, within the Standard Days capacity group, it is possible to change a standard Monday Plan from a standard Breakfast setup to a Bank Holiday configuration. This flexibility allows you to adjust your layout, online availability, and table prioritisation to better match your operational needs.

With the right data and setup, you can manage capacity and optimise your entire guest experience.

3. Make the Most of Your Data

Whether you have a dedicated data team analysing your data, or you’re reviewing it yourself, we recommend you do it as regularly as possible.

For those with data warehouses, we recommend linking daily feeds of your data using an SFTP feed. This pushes data daily to a file location that can then be picked up and absorbed. Everything from when the guest booked, if they edit their booking, when they seat, check-out and if they opted into your marketing. Zonal also offer Power BI reports that can help show this in a much clearer format.

Here are some powerful reports within our Loyalty and Bookings products:

Loyalty:

Three flexible loyalty reports are available, allowing you to easily define the level of detail you need. You can customise the search criteria and choose which report fields to display.

The Transaction Report contains loyalty transaction information based on various customisable criteria, such as a person’s name, their card ID or transaction type.

The Registration Report provides information on the registrations made to a specific loyalty program for a given date range.

The Liability Report provides information on the current loyalty liability for a chosen reward, up to and including the date on which the report is requested.

Your business data holds powerful insights. Analysing and understanding it can empower you to make smarter, more informed decisions about how to optimise your system setup.